Monday, December 12, 2005

Hoops Notes

Well, a busy weekend, but we'll get back to some updates here. Sorry for the drought. On a side note, I went skeet-shooting for the first time ever Saturday morning with a group of men from my church. In fact, I had not shot a gun in years, so I was just hoping to hit something. However, I may be taking this up as a serious hobby in the future. In sort of a golf course format, you went around to 12 different stands and shot clay pigeons in pairs from different angles, etc. I hit 57/100, which ended up 2nd or 3rd in our group I think. Not bad for a newbie who hadn't shot a gun in years and had never shot skeet. If you ever get a chance to do that, I highly recommend it. It was a "blast".

Now, on to more important things (to you):

Hewitt wins #100
Coach downplayed his 100th on the flats saying it just means he's been here 6 years. Congrats anyhow and here's to the next 100......... in 5 years or less :-)

PACO Di "Wow"
I think Paco earned himself some PT moving forward. He came into that Tenn.St game and offensive flow, teamwork and passing went up another notch. Amazing that a guy who did little more than find the open man gets so much press. Just shows you that this young team is still learning about the importance of ball movement and creating open shots.

So Coach Hewitt said it was a reward for Theodis Tarver's hard work against UGA and effort in practice. Sorry, I'm not buying. If what you mean is that Theo's work deserved it ahead of a guy who only grabbed 1 board in 20+ minutes, well ok. Theo didn't deserve it against the 24-point Dickey vs Mich.St, but the 1 board 5 point Dickey is a different story.......... This was a message to Ra'Sean, who has had questions tagged to him since high school about his ability (or lack of) to come out and play hard every night. In fact, most recruiting services had him in the 30-50 ranking range. Had he had the rep as an "every night" guy, I have no doubt he would have been in the top 25. If he can ever harness the J-Smith attitude -watch out!!! Speacking of J-Smith........

Want more proof this isn't about Theo? Coach Hewitt has instructed his team to get Dickey the ball if he's working hard, and not to throw it to him if he's not. Whatever works. Here's a quote from Coach Hewitt:

Hewitt said its up to Dickey to find his own motivation.

"He's got to do it. If you find yourself motivating someone all the time, you're basically counting the days until you lose or until disaster," Hewitt said. "If you have to constantly motivate somebody, your team's not going to win."

Ok, anyone want to place odds on Smith making it through the season with missing time due to injury. This guys isn't injury prone - he just plays so dang hard all the time. I said this past summer that I thought this team was Jeremis's for the taking - in terms of leadership. He is really starting to set a tone and step up.

Meanwhile, Jeremis's girlfriend took him into that gym last week after all those missed free throw and wouldn't let him leave until he hit 12 in a row - the very number he missed vs UGAg. Well, he went 10-10 last game. Nice. Hey Jeremis - don't let that young lady slip away. Sounds like you got a good one. In fact, if she's got friends, you might want to hook up your teammates.....

Clinch has a calf injury and is being held back to heal. Evidently he told Coach Hewitt how much he was able to learn on the bench during the victory over Tenn.St. He told coach there were things he saw that he was not able to in the game. Clinch has been struggling a bit, but that happens for freshman, particularly on the defensive end....... and if it's not clicking defensively then it impacts the offensive end as well. Clinch has not been shy about looking for shots. He'll come around. He's a huge talent (#1 ranked Scoring Guard to go to college), but it will just take time and patience (time for him, patience for us).

Speaking of talented Scoring Guards, UGAg's B.Humphrey wanted to be recruited by the Jackets, but wasn't........and these are his words:

"I wanted to play for Georgia Tech, and they recruited right over my head," he said after scoring a season-high 19 points on 6 of 8 shooting in a 91-75 victory over the Yellow Jackets in Athens on Wednesday. "This is what they missed. That's how I feel about it."

Ouch..... By the way, it is fair to say Lewis Clinch is the guy we recruited instead of him.............